GLaD
by Zombificus
Summary: My first fanfiction, so forgive any flaws. Chell leaves Aperture and gets captured by the Combine. After GLaDOS springs her free, both ponder their feelings for one another. Meanwhile, the Combine has other plans for the pair and prepares for an attack on Aperture. A ChellDOS story.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note:**_** This is my first story and I hope it works out ok. I've been reading several entries on the site and wanted to try my hand at writing one myself. Fingers crossed it works. This is actually the 2****nd**** version of chapter one, I rewrote it. Hope you enjoy this version more.**

**Chapter 1: Part One: Exile, Vilify**

As GLaDOS looked down at Chell's unconscious body she wondered why she didn't just end it right now. She wouldn't feel a thing, it would be better than the torture and death the Combine would give her _out there, _but she couldn't do it, it felt wrong. Some part deep within her had grown attached to the madwoman who lay before her without a care in the world – wait, no, that wasn't quite right, Chell was shifting in her sleep, muttering insensible comments, GLaDOS realised she was having something humans called a 'nightmare', whatever she was dreaming, the test subject obviously wasn't enjoying it. GLaDOS's eye screwed up in worry as Chell uttered another comment "No! Don't hurt them! Somebody do something! Daddy!" this, GLaDOS decided, was worrying. Chell appeared to be having a nightmare about that fated Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, the day when Chell's adoptive father had been killed. GLaDOS felt a pang of guilt as a voice in her head reminded her that she had killed Chell's father and that at the time she had enjoyed it, she felt another stab of guilt as she remembered that she had felt that same evil pleasure each time Chell had been hurt, each time GLaDOS had directed an insult her way and each time she put her through a test she knew would injure her. She was a monster. But if she was, then why wasn't she killing Chell now? Certainly something had changed between them; a bond had formed when they had been in aperture's old section. It was almost like friendship, but GLaDOS had killed friends before in the interests of facility security, and Chell was the biggest security risk that had ever existed within the walls of aperture laboratories. It came back toi the same question: why didn't she- no, why _couldn't_ she kill Chell.

GLaDOS looked deep into her emotion databanks and pulled up the emotions she felt for Chell. Immediately she wished she hadn't. In the file, just below Friendship was that one word, Love. She was in disbelief. No, it couldn't be right; it must be a glitch with her databanks. It must have gotten corrupted when that little IDIOT had been plugged in to her. She searched her secondary and tertiary banks but came up with the same result. The foremost emotion she had felt for Chell, Hate, had been replaced by the polar opposite. She loved Chell. She hadn't really doubted her databanks but there had been part of her that had hoped it wasn't true, that she wouldn't have to face e the consequences attached to that particular emotion. Her train of thought was interrupted by a jolt of pure joy as Chell woke. If she'd had any lingering doubts, they were stopped in their tracks. It was certain, GLaDOS loved Chell and she couldn't ignore it. As Chell stood, GLaDOS spoke "Oh, thank gosh you're all right!" and she meant it. Chell looked suspicious about her sudden change from hostility and sarcasm. GLaDOS quickly rambled on about reasons for letting her go and pretended to delete Caroline."You know, my life was pretty good before you showed up" a voice in her head said no, it was lonely and boring before you showed up, GLaDOS ignored it, she could dwell on her feelings later. " all I did was test", GLaDOS continued, " nobody tried to murder me, or put me in a potato" GLaDOS's inner voice said she'd quite like to kill that sphere in the most painful way possible, GLaDOS had to agree with herself on that one, "and then you showed up, you dangerous, mute, lunatic" in her head the voice whispered_ my _dangerous, mute, lunatic, who I'll never see again because you have to leave, before my evil side kills you. As GLaDOS started the elevator's ascent, she said her farewell to Chell "it's been fun, don't come back" don't ever come back, said the voice, because if you do, I don't know if I'll be able to stop myself killing you.

Before Chell leaves completely, GLaDOS had prepared a little surprise for her, she had arranged for her turret orchestra to play a song she had dredged up from her databanks, Caroline had been sung it as a child and GLaDOS just changed the name it was addressed to from Caroline to Chell. Yes, that would do. GLaDOS quietly began to sing along, goodbye, Chell said the voice in her head and if anyone had been watching, they would have seen a holographic tear drip down her optic.

Chell stood up straight as the elevator stopped and a door opened, revealing an ambush of turrets. That robotic bitch queen! See, she told herself, this is what you get for trusting a megalomaniac AI. Chell braced herself as the turrets' sides popped open and their guns sprung out. But they never fired, instead they began to play. An incredulous look dropped onto her face as the elevator rose and row after row of turrets played the song. GLaDOS, Chell thought, you shouldn't have. She smiled with a warmth she had never shown before and the elevator rose into a chamber packed with turrets, a fat one in the middle and a huge leopard skin one with a crown at the rear of what must be a turret orchestra. Chell grinned and shook with silent laughter at GLaDOS's final joke, the show ain't over 'till the fat turret sings. The music paused and sprang back into full chorus, the fat turret was singing in a voice that was just enough like GLaDOS's for her to realise that GLaDOS was singing, albeit in a more beautiful voice. Chell knew the song was for her and tears ran down her cheeks as she realised that GLaDOS had gone through all of this for her alone. She felt something GLaDOS-shaped fill the hole in her heart where her parents and friends had been before they had died. Chell realised she had forgiven the AI for killing them. Just how strong a bond _had_ they gained? Chell waved goodbye as a fresh batch of tears ran down her cheeks. She mouthed the words _goodbye,_ _GLaDOS, I'll miss you_. Her heart was singing and hurting at the same time and a melancholy feeling settled over her as the lift stopped and she stepped out into the world. It didn't feel as good to be free as she had thought, oh god, I miss her already. A loud rumble from behind interrupted her thoughts and the door opened, expelling the companion cube she had 'incinerated' ages ago. Written in the ash on the side were the words _something to remember me by. _Chell walked forward and kissed the camera poking out from the iron shed and turned away, a blush spreading on her cheeks as she wondered why she had kissed the camera. She thought deeply as she carried her cube trough the fields of endless wheat and came to one conclusion, she really liked GLaDOS, and almost enough to call it love. She walked off with a grin on her face, a melancholy feeling in her heart and tears in her eyes.

GLaDOS had watched as Chell had kissed her camera, and by connection, her. She felt a new pang of grief and she sank into deep thought, playing an appropriate song. She listened with a pained look in her eye as she looked through all the best footage of Chell over and over. The song played on. _Exile, it takes your mind, again. You've got sucker's luck, have you given up…. _

**Chapter One: Part Two: Overwatch**

Chell was exhausted by the time she made it to the woods outside City 19, she lay in the branches of a tree and looked down into the city, transfixed by the ring of blue metal towers around a swirling mass that looked like a cross between a hurricane and a portal. She watched it spin and drifted into an uneasy sleep. In her dream, Chell was back in aperture, it was the dream from earlier, where she watched helpless as everyone died around her, only it was Wheatley instead of GLaDOS and Chell screamed as she saw GLaDOS's head being dragged into a chamber where Wheatley fired missile after missile into her, blowing her casing apart as GLaDOS cried out and – Chell woke up, panting, and tensed as she heard a static-obscured voice from underneath her. "There's something up there, someone send up a scanner", a metal object with an eye like GLaDOS's rose up. Chell hit it with her cube and it promptly exploded. A different voice spoke, "there's someone up there all right and they're armed" the first voice spoke and Chell almost cried out when it gave the order "Fire!"

Chell dropped from her tree and ran, her long fall boots aiding her in her escape. She ran towards a cliff where she promptly sped up and leapt- "What the hell is she doing?!" said the first voice as Chell hurtled down, her boots translating her downwards speed into forwards motion as she hit, springing off at twice the speed. All the while she'd kept her cube safely in her hands. The soldiers walked to the edge of the cliff and looked at one another. The leader, in white armour with a single red eyepiece broke the silence: "I don't know how she survived that but that's not the issue here. Her clothing had Aperture Laboratories symbols on it and she looked like a test subject. Nova Prospekt will want to interrogate her. Call back the Dropship, I'll get some air support and when we catch her we'll be getting promotions within a week." "Don't fail me or it isn't just a pay rise you'll lose. Is that understood?" the soldiers nodded and filed back into the dropship's pod. The elite spoke into his radio "Doctor Breen? Yes, I have news, we have spotted an aperture laboratories test subject, with brand new equipment, she's escaped but we have her position. How? She jumped off a cliff, Yes, you did hear me right, She survived and is heading North-North-West, Yes, we're about to tail her in the Dropship, I'd like some air support, she doesn't seem like one to come quietly, Yes, I'm aware of the risks, Sir?, Sir, can we have air support?" on the other end of the line, in city 17, Doctor Breen grinned evilly, an aperture test subject, eh?, he thought to himself, yes, she'd be useful to them and when Overwatch was done with her, he'd save the tapes to his private collection and have her turned to a stalker, to serve him. Yes, he liked that plan. He was aware of the Overwatch Elite repeating his request for air support, Breen answered. "Yes, Overwatch 322-Alpha, you may have air support, hunter-chopper 849-Theta at your disposal" Under his facemask, the Elite smiled, "thank you, sir", he was going to enjoy this.

GLaDOS had been watching all this through the cube's in built camera, she had also heard the radio conversation between the soldiers, it had been encoded but she'd broken through. She almost wished she hadn't. The words were spinning round her head, Nova Prospekt, the combine "prison" that was really their place to torture information out of their victims, Air Support, they were sending in airborne killing machines, Hunter-Chopper meant it was one of their helicopters and all this boiled down to one thing: they were going to gun Chell down, capture her and then torture her before ripping her mind apart to see what else she knew. GLaDOS couldn't let that happen. If it did, she would probably go into shutdown, unable to cope with losing the only person she'd ever cared about. No, for her sake and Chell's she had to do something, it couldn't happen, _ever_. Even as she thought this, the blue-gunmetal monstrosity spotted Chell and prepared for the kill….

Chell had dived to the side when the 'Chopper's first rain of gunshots were fired in her direction, now she was cornered, with nowhere to hide. A lesser woman might have given up but Chell ran forwards, deflecting the second barrage with her cube before hitting the gun with it, the gun was damaged but still functional, it charged up a final time, but just as she would have been hit, the cube fired a beam of electricity from its top right corner, the gun heated up, the metal glowing white as the gun was surrounded in a crackling, lightning blue aura, Chell got the feeling she should get away and backpedalled, right into a combine tripwire set up by the soldiers, the mine went off, blowing Chell into the air and into a pool of water, at that instant, the gun had erupted into blue flame and exploding, blowing the front of the 'chopper into smithereens. The now pilotless helicopter span, fire streaking from its engine pods as it neared the ground, spilling its spherical mines before hitting the cliff face above Chell and erupting in a blue and white supernova that sent parts of the cliff tumbling down, along with the unlucky soldier standing there. Chell was thankfully unconscious when the metal shards landed on top of her. GLaDOS watched from the cube's perspective as it was carried along with an unconscious Chell into the pod of the Dropship, headed for Nova Prospekt. She would have shut down if not for the fact that if she did, Chell would die. GLaDOS cheered up as her rather morbid sense of humour cooked up the perfect plan to get Chell back, right from under their noses, yes, she would get her lunatic back before too long. She just prayed she wouldn't be too late to save what was left of Chell's sanity.

Her eye narrowed to a slit and she started work. It was going to be a long night…

_**Author's Note:**_

**So, that was the rewritten version of chapter one, it's about 800 words longer than before but I've packed in a lot more story and detail, as well as a bit of back story and I think I did a much better job of it. In my opinion the first one wasn't very good. Hope you like this one more, I know I do.**

**Chapter 2 is on the way, part one will be called Bad Prospekts and basically there's a lot of portal related mayhem as Chell escapes from Nova Prospekt and makes her way back to a very emotional GLaDOS. Hope I wrote the two well enough to please you hard-core portal fans. Let me know what you think and I'll try to make it work for you. Thanks for reading, Zombificus.**

**P.S I might rename this at some point, 'Conflicts' isn't too catchy so give me ideas for a new name.**

**Also, I do not own Exile Vilify, hopefully I haven't broken any laws by putting the lyrics here, sorry to The National if it is.**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note: sorry about the delay for both this and the updated chapter one, my internet's been down but at least I wrote this chapter in the meantime.**_

Chapter 2: Bad Prospekts

Chell almost winced as her interrogator slapped her across the face, this happened every day, every time she ignored the soldier sat in front of her. Another question asked, another question ignored, that was her tactic. She wouldn't answer their questions but the more she ignored them, the more she was 'punished'. the 'punishment' was more like torture but so far, in the week she had been there, Chell hadn't uttered a word. From what she'd overheard from the other prisoners' conversations, these soldiers had originally been 'Metrocops', humans who had betrayed their own kind and did the Combine's bidding purely so they could live in relative comfort, they were all nasty, sadistic, and cruel. Apparently the soldiers had once been metrocops who had volunteered for service in the Combine's military, a job usually involving killing people for no good reason and torturing any prisoners. In the process of becoming one of their ruthless soldiers, they were erased of all memories and humanity and augmented with machinery to make them more combat effective. Chell hated every last one of them.

Chell ignored the next question, then the one after. Her face was raw from the slapping and her muscles were in constant spasm as she was stabbed time and again with the electric prod they used to 'encourage' their prisoners. The soldier interrogating her gave up and spoke into his microphone "Subject Aperture Delta fails to answer to interrogation. Requesting higher ranking officer to undertake interrogation." This wasn't good. A higher ranking officer meant at best one of the brutal shotgun troopers that upranked this standard one, at worst it would be one of the white armoured elite soldiers, they were brutal, cruel and ruthless, completely devoid of any emotion except hatred and rage. She'd seen these twice before, first when one was commanding the squad that had captured her and second when watching one interrogate a prisoner. The poor woman had been unrecognisable when he'd finished with her and Chell got a nasty feeling she was next on the white soldiers' chopping block. Her worst fears were realised when a figure burst through the door to her cell, simply kicking the door half off its hinges and causing the other prisoners to cower in the farthest corner of their cells. In his hand he held a semicircular blade, serrated and punctuated with a series of tapering spikes. The weapon visibly crackled with electricity and Chell had to fight the urge to retreat like the others. The single red eyepiece in his visor lit up with rage as he saw who he had been called to interrogate. God, he was mad. Not that he believed in god or any other being with ultimate power except his overseers, the Combine Advisors. He strode forwards, blade in hand, an electric whip in the other, he had a pistol, loaded, at his waist, a full set of grenades and a wide assortment of evil looking blades slung on a belt across his torso. He was death itself. Chell, well aware of the danger she was in, but unable to resist, smirked.

Big mistake. The Elite crossed the gap between them in a blur, slashing at her waist with the blade and striking her back with his whip. Chell bit her tongue, barely stopping herself from crying out as electricity rippled across her, her body convulsing as she held back the scream rising in her throat. No! She. Would. Not. Give. Him. The. Satis. Faction. The elite stepped back casually, as if nothing had happened. "Now, I've been told you've been uncooperative with my colleague. He asked for my assistance in the matter. You may think you are strong, but I WILL break you. You may think you can hide your secrets, but I will rip them out of you. You may think you are smart, but after I'm done with you, your brain won't be capable of even that stupid smirk you just did." Chell didn't react. "Stubborn one, are we?" he picked one of the various knives off his belt and stuck it into Chell's thigh, twisting it one way, then the other. Chell still didn't react, she knew that if she did, the consequences would be the same as if she didn't, _and_ she'd be betraying GLaDOS. So she kept silent as he twisted a dial on the handle of the knife, electricity coursed through her, and it was all she could do not to scream as he turned it up to full, then twisted it back to half way. "still not talking? I know you can. I watched the tapes. You talk in your sleep, you know. Something about a Gladys." He said this with the casualness you'd expect from a conversation between friends. Chell was embarrassed about the sleeptalking but she didn't let it show, that was, until the Elite finished, a smug smile on the face under his helmet, with "she your girlfriend? Aw, how sweet" the last portion was said with such a sarcastic and mocking tone that Chell couldn't help but blush. She hadn't wanted to react, but her body obviously had other ideas. "tell me about this 'Gladys' person. She another test subject? A citizen? An android?. He paused and then continued with a smirk in his voice, "A computer, even? _Now that _**would**_ be sad._" Chell succeeded in not blushing this time, her cheeks only slightly pinker. This, however, was enough for the elite to notice. He chuckled darkly and leant against the bars of Chell's cell, casually examining another of the blades as he laid on another suggestion, his self-assurance audible even through the voice distortion his helmet gave. "An AI, maybe. Gladys the AI. Or is it GLa_DOS_?" Chell was blushing as red as a tomato by this point.

He was content with the results he'd gotten from that line of enquiry. He charged up the knife he'd been examining it and thrust it into her other thigh, twisting it to its highest setting and repeating with the previous one. "Ok, then. _WHERE _IS_ YOUR_ AI _GIRLFRIEND_?" the question coincided with a slash to her arm with the circular blade. "Tell me where Aperture Laboratories is and I'll stop" Chell's response to that was a weak punch to the eyepiece. He retaliated with a double slash with a 2nd circular blade, one hit to her chest, another to her collarbone. She spat in his eye, knocking him back with a charge. He dodged out of the way and knocked her to the ground, breaking her nose on the cell floor. The last thing she heard before a metal dome was slotted over her head was "I'd say I was sorry you didn't cooperate, but I'm not. I'm going to enjoy this. Have fun with your insanity." He chuckled, no trace of humanity in his voice and then the screws drilled into her skull and she blacked out.

Chell sat in her cell with only her cube and the screams for company. A ring of tiny holes ran along her head, the Combine had used their machine on her. They had drawn out all she knew. She'd known this would happen. Even the ones who'd cooperated had been given the same treatment. She had failed GLaDOS, she'd failed everything and everyone she'd ever cared about. She wished she was back in aperture, she wished GLaDOS was with her, that she could explain, that maybe she'd be forgiven. More than anything she wished she had someone to talk to, hell; even Wheatley would be preferable to the silence she was enduring. Even when she'd been testing, GLaDOS had spoken to her enough to remind her that she wasn't alone. GLaDOS, she sighed, getting a warm, fuzzy feeling in her chest as she thought of the old AI. I miss you, GLaDOS. She was startled by a voice coming from her cube. "Hello? Chell, are you there? I've deactivated the listening devices in your cell so we can talk. Hello? Chell?" Chell grinned and walked over to her cube, all of the previous night's ordeal forgotten at the sound of that one voice. she tried to say 'hello' but all that came out was "hcklhuh" she tried again "heghlo" "Chell!" GLaDOS's voice came out of the cube; she spoke with more than a bit of affection in her voice. "Hi GLaDOS" "why're you in such a good mood?" There was a pause long enough for Chell to think that GLaDOS had lost connection, but then GLaDOS's voice came back out of the speaker, "erm…well…. It's nice…. Y'know...talking to you again….so…hi" Chell smirked at GLaDOS's loss of words; she almost sounded like she was a shy girl asking someone out on a first date, all hesitations and vague language. It was so funny she started to laugh. This, however, annoyed GLaDOS. "What's so funny?" snapped GLaDOS, with more than a bit of embarrassment in her voice, as if she had guessed what Chell was thinking.

"Anyway… how much do you want to get out of here?" "huh" said Chell, confused. "you remember orange and blue? The robots?, well I've fitted them with weapons and armour and I've sent them in to cause a bit of chaos so you can escape" GLaDOS paused to let her friend think, "so…how does that sound?". Chell was speechless, if GLaDOS cared enough to get her out of here, then that friendship between them had been part of _her _and_ not_ part of Caroline. It made her giddy with happiness that GLaDOS was still her friend, and a better one than her old friends. I love GLaDOS, thought Chell and then realised what the little voice in her head had said. The voice was right; her feelings for GLaDOS were more than just friendship. She sat, dazed as she tried to figure out how long she'd felt like that. GLaDOS had gotten worried that something had happened to her so she spoke again "hey, Chell, you OK in there?" Chell came out of her daze and answered quickly "yeah, just fine" "you don't sound fine, are you sure you're OK?" GLaDOS wasn't convinced. "I'm OK, GLaDOS, it's just….wow….i didn't realise you cared enough to do this for me….no one else I've ever known would have done this…..i think you're the best friend I've ever had…so thanks…" Chell trailed off, unsure of how to carry on, GLaDOS seemed as stunned as she was "I...I...thank you, no one's ever said something nice to me before. Ever…."

Chell was surprised about this, even though she knew that it was unlikely GLaDOS had had any friends, she had thought, well hoped, that GLaDOS had at least had _some_ friends. "Wow, GLaDOS, that wasn't even the nicest thing I could think of…. You've really never had anyone compliment you? No one should ever be _that_ surprised that someone was nice to them" GLaDOS was still glowing from the compliment and she was glad that Chell valued their friendship; she had even called her 'best friend'. GLaDOS realised how much she missed the former test subject, she had to tell her.

"And... Chell…" GLaDOS petered out, still unsure if she wanted to say this. Chell, however, decided for her, "Yeah?" Chell was intrigued as to what GLaDOS would say. "I've really missed you", said GLaDOS, and Chell could almost swear her voice had caught when she'd said that. Chell smiled again and replied with a happy "I missed you too, you sentimental old lump of metal" if GLaDOS had been there, she would have patted the supercomputer's casing. GLaDOS had decided that she wanted to change the topic over to Chell's escape. She'd continue the conversation later, with Chell back with her in aperture, after all, there's only so much you can say via telephone. Some things needed to be told face to face, and GLaDOS's feelings for her were one such thing. "so onto the plan, you'll need more than what you've got to escape, so it's a good thing I put a miniature portal generator inside your cube, I can pass stuff through to you"

"Twist each of the hearts on your cube in the direction they turn, 3 turn clockwise, 3 anticlockwise"

Chell, a champion puzzlebreaker, quickly got her cube open, the top had detached so Chell removed it, inside was a miniature, square portal frame from the single portal tests she had been so good at. The portal opened and a brand new aperture jumpsuit came out, it was sleeker than her old one and was a metallic blue colour. On the front was her name, Chell and the aperture symbol. It was a much better fit and Chell wondered how GLaDOS had guessed her size. She got the feeling that GLaDOS had made it with her in mind. After the jumpsuit came a more complex version of her long fall boots, these were black, with an aperture logo in the same blue as the jumpsuit. A set of braces for her wrists came through, they were white, like fingerless gloves but with a piece on her wrist as well and a metal band like her heel springs that spanned from the glove part to the wrist piece. The final object to come through was the thing she'd longed for ever since leaving aperture, well that and GLaDOS. It was a portal gun, but unlike the ones she was used to, it was longer and slotted over her lower arm, clipping to the wrist braces and giving her much greater accuracy, it encased most of her arm and was a sleeker design, and it even had a sight on top, this had a symbol for a portal on it, it would light up if she could portal onto a surface, it also glowed the colour of the last placed portal.. The final change was a button where her thumb rested, which closed both portals in an instant. Chell was now ready, except one more things had come through the now-closed portal, a headset-helmet that looked both functional and a little bit mad. She put it on and found she could hear GLaDOS muttering something about someone 'not caring in that way' Chell ignored it and spoke. "so, when do I start?" she said, with a grin. She replaced the top on the cube and found that it clipped easily to the back of her jumpsuit.

GLaDOS spoke after a few seconds "ok. The distraction will commence and escaping will begin in 3, 2, 1," A loud bang announced the arrival of Atlas and P-Body, with the Combine distracted, she made it through the prison with ease, bypassing the flimsy turrets the Combine had placed down. It was all going well and she was about to follow GLaDOS's instruction to "turn right and run for the nearest vehicle" when a loud animal noise alerted her that the hangar was not completely deserted, she popped her head round the corner and snapped it back around as the Strider that the Combine had left to guard their vehicles fired a burst of red hot bullets at where her head had been. This wasn't going to be as easy as she'd hoped. Seeing a solution to the problem of getting in, Chell fired a portal in front of her and a 2nd above a walkway. She dived through and the Strider reacted quickly, sending a burst of fire along the walkway behind her. She threw herself to the ground and the shots missed but the Strider once again reacted quickly, firing up a larger gun underneath its belly, the very space around the gun's barrel warping and twisting. The last thought she had before the strider blew the walkway out from under her was 'That gun looks like a dick". When Chell came to a few seconds after, the Strider was towering above her, and suddenly the gun seemed a lot less funny. The Strider charged another shot and Chell dived sideways, firing a portal where she'd been and another behind the monster. The shot hit it but the Strider wasn't dead, it charged at her and she heard GLaDOS scream "No!" as it raised its leg to spear her, but Chell rolled to one side her arm was sliced, reminding her that it would only take one wrong move to die, but she thought she was ok, that was when she noticed the piece of railing sticking out of her stomach, and the slowly spreading blood stain. Grunting with pain as she dodged a 2nd stab, she had an idea; in front of her was the perfect place for a portal. She placed one there, right under the strider, and as it dropped its leg a final time, she rolled again, firing a portal where she'd been a second ago. The Strider's leg went into the first portal and came out the 2nd, stabbing through the strider's stomach and spearing its brain. Chell heaved herself up as the Strider toppled, she was in no state to fly any of the vehicles, but there was a lone Dropship waiting for a passenger. Her headset burst into life and there was panic and guilt in GLaDOS's voice as she exclaimed "Chell! Chell, you're bleeding! You need to get back to Aperture, and fast!" Chell sounded really bad when she replied "I think I noticed". somehow she limped to the Dropship and Chell patted the huge beast's head, leaning on a railing before collapsing into its transport pod, the last thing she remembered before she passed out was GLaDOS telling her she'd be all right…..

Back in her chamber, GLaDOS was beside herself with worry, guilt and rage, she was furious with herself for not helping, for letting Chell get hurt. She had a nasty feeling that Chell might die before she returned. If Chell died she would never forgive herself. All her memories of the girl sped through her mind and she started to sob when she imagined life without her little lunatic.

The elevator came down a few nail-biting hours later, with Chell in it, pasty faced and in a pool of blood, her jumpsuit dyed crimson with the liquid, more pouring out by the second. She staggered forwards towards GLaDOS and collapsed halfway, a stream of blood marking her path. Forcing herself to ignore the pain in her heart, the blood on the floor, the hopelessness of the situation, GLaDOS picked Chell up gently with her claw and lowered her onto the table she'd prepared hours ago. She called in the Medical Android, a recent addition to her robot brethren. She watched Chell's unconscious form as the android sewed up her wounds, bandaging her cuts and replacing the lost blood. God, that was a lot of blood, thought GLaDOS, panicking as she looked around her chamber at the blood that had flooded out of Chell's veins. She'd lost too much, she'd never make it. She spent hours cursing every mistake she'd made and she was too engrossed in her circle of self-loathing to realise that the med bot had finished work. The Med 'bot had to hit her with its scalpel to get her attention. She looked over to the operating table and a badly hurt Chell gave her a weak smile and a thank you before craning her head to kiss GLaDOS's faceplate. If GLaDOS had been human, she'd have blushed until her face looked like a tomato. GLaDOS started to speak "Chell, I…" but noticed she'd passed out again, a contented smile on her face. GLaDOS watched her all night, willing her to wake up so she could tell her how she felt. But Chell didn't stir, and eventually GLaDOS passed out from the stress and exhaustion, her head slumping to rest next to Chell's on the pillow.

_**Author's Note: Hi again, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, not much ChellDOS here but it's leading up to chapter 3, where they open up to each other about their feelings and ChellDOS madness ensues. Also the Combine attack Aperture in search of the Portal Gun. About 50/50 action and ChellDOS in the next one so I guess I'll see you then. Thanks for everything, Zombificus. P.S. this chapter was meant to be in 2 parts like chapter 1 but in the end, there was no easy way to split the chapter, so Bad Prospekts is all you get, story's the same as it would have been, so it's not as if you lost half a chapter. When you review, bear in mind that this**_** is**_** the first bit of fan fiction I've written. Thanks to all the people who reviewed the previous version of chapter 1, I was grinning like a loon when I saw the amount of reviews, so thank you all. I'm writing a small Portal short alongside this, focusing on several alternate versions of Portal 2's end, starring Android Chell, Human Chell, GLaDOS, PotatOS, Whatley and Turrets. also coming up is my version of GLaDOS's awakening, staying truer to the original Portal in terms of GLaDOS's looks and sarcasm.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Note**__: Once again my internet was down so this one's late. I hope you enjoyed chapter 2, reviews are always welcome, you monsters._

Chapter 3: Part One: Reunion

Chell had been rather surprised to find GLaDOS's head next to hers on the pillow. Apparently GLaDOS _did_ need to sleep, and it appeared she wasn't the only one who sleeptalked. GLaDOS was having the AI equivalent of a nightmare. She was muttering in garbled bursts, pain evident in her voice. After a few times listening to her mumblings, Chell worked out that GLaDOS was having a nightmare about the previous day's events. She was blaming herself for what had happened, for Chell's near death experience. After a while, it became too painful to listen to and Chell tuned out, sinking into her own thoughts. "Poor old GLaDOS, I can't believe she's blaming herself for that" Chell felt a surge of pity for the AI beside her "it wasn't your fault". Except the AI was no longer beside her, she had woken and raised herself back up off the pillow without Chell noticing. "What wasn't my fault?" Chell blushed; embarrassed she'd listened to the AI's mutterings. "Erm…well…you were talking in your sleep… you were blaming yourself for yesterday" GLaDOS lowered her head "I'm so sorry, Chell" The AI sighed. "I shouldn't have let that happen". Chell rolled her eyes, hadn't she listened to her earlier? She didn't blame GLaDOS for yesterday. "_GLaDOS_, I don't blame you for yesterday, you did _all_ you could. And besides, you saved my life later, so even if I _had_ blamed you, you'd have made up for it" GLaDOS visibly cheered up at this, raising her head to look at Chell. "I still feel bad about that. And letting you get captured." The AI's optic glowed brighter as she said "But at least I have _you_ back. My dangerous, not-so-mute lunatic."

Chell smiled at that. Her smile grew into an even bigger grin as GLaDOS reminded her it was her birthday. "I got you...well…made you… a present" GLaDOS said hopefully. Chell pretended to groan. "Oh, god, it's not that surprise medical experiment is it?" GLaDOS would have been hurt by that if not for the stupid grin on Chell's face, reminding her she was joking. Chell laughed at GLaDOS's expression, but stopped because it hurt. "Seriously now, what is it?" GLaDOS sounded mock annoyed when she replied "Well, I _was_ going to tell you, but then you made that _AWFUL_ joke" she chuckled at that. The surprise in question had tipped over its box and clattered along the floor towards Chell. "I saw that humans value animal companionship, so I made you a pe-" The rest of GLaDOS's explanation was cut off as Chell threw her arms around the robot's head and kissed her for the second time in 2 days. GLaDOS was glad she didn't blush; her face would have been redder than a turret's eye by now. She rested her head gently on the human's shoulder and sighed happily. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to tell Chell after all. Her thoughts of telling her were cut off by a violent explosion that rippled throughout the facility. Chell was thrown backwards onto the floor and some of GLaDOS's cables were shaken from their sockets. "It's the Combine. They've found us."

Chapter 3: Part Two: Dominion

The Elite didn't know how the prisoner had escaped, but he was glad she had. All he'd needed to do was track the dropship's route and now he had her and her AI lover cornered. His troops were ready, the full force of City 19, 8 and 11's Armed forces, with the sole exception of the metrocops. With this army he'd have the facility by tomorrow, and his promotion. He gave the order and the ranks of striders opened fire, blowing a hole in the ground and revealing the metal superstructure. This would be easier than he'd thought. Grinning under his helmet, he gave the order and the troops marched in.

Chell was first to speak after a second explosion tore the ceiling open, "Those things again! They'll blow their way in here in seconds!" GLaDOS was concentrating on relocating turret defences and didn't look from the bank of screens as she spoke. "You'll need a weapon. Get one of those guns from the panel over there". Chell looked dumbstruck. "What? You don't think _I'll_ stand a chance against _them_ do you? They're highly trained murderers and I'm just a normal person." When she replied, GLaDOS seemed unconcerned, but inside she was more worried than Chell, "You'll have Atlas and P-Body, and I'll be watching your back, I'll crush any bastard who dares fire a shot at you, or maybe I'll dump some turrets on them." Chell was still terrified, but the thought of a combine soldier buried in a pile of turrets made her smile, well at least until she remembered what they'd do to her if they found her. "I'm scared" Chell had broken down, collapsed on the floor with fresh tears forming her eyes. She couldn't do it. "I can't do it", she sobbed. GLaDOS was panicking now, if she didn't have Chell fending off the Combine they'd surely get in, but if Chell got hurt, she'd hate her for sending her out against them. All logical thought broke down and the AI said the only thing she could think of. "Chell, I love you" she half-shouted, she needed to tell her and she might not get another chance. Chell wiped her eyes and walked over to the gun. She picked it up and loaded it. She couldn't fail her, not after GLaDOS had spilled her biggest secret to her. She walked out the door, looking back one last time at the AI before facing forwards again as she strode into hell.

The Elite dropped into the ruined test chamber; the walls were cracked and broken and would make perfect cover. His troops followed him down, a squad he'd handpicked from soldiers he'd trained. He ducked into cover as a shot was fired from the distance. A single shot meant it was a person, not a turret. The prisoner had a gun and she was defending her home. How very brave, and so very stupid. They would kill her and rip the place apart. They'd kill the AI and steal its data. Then they'd burn it out. He smiled with satisfaction as his troops returned fire, using all cover, just like they'd been trained. A strangled burst of static as one of his men went down, then another. He popped out of cover and ran forwards, firing both his pulse rifles at anything that moved. A stab of pain as he was hit, but he carried on, a burst of fire and two more of his men went down. He was losing, but the battle could still be won.

Chell set her gun to timed fire and threw it somewhere behind her and the Elite ran right past, sure she was with the gun now automatically firing. The rest of them were dead. She sprang out of cover and knocked into him, grabbing one of his knives from its sheath. He twisted round and hit her hard in the throat, knocking the breath out of her. She pushed off from a broken panel and knocked him down. The Elite grabbed her wrist and twisted it, pushing the knife towards her throat. She dodged to the side and the knife sank all the way into her shoulder. The Elite had her where he wanted now; he stood up, one foot on her chest as he drew a long dagger from a sheath on his shoulder. Savouring the kill, he twisted it round so it faced down, to stab. He raised his arm and began to jerk it downwards towards Chell's heart. He never made it. Out of her half shut eyes, Chell watched as a long white spike erupted from his chest, tearing clean through the armour. A robot she'd never seen before reached its white hand up and snapped his neck. The spike retracted and the robot's yellow eyes grew brighter as she growled "That's what you get if you touch _my _lunatic". GLaDOS straightened up and walked forward to help Chell to her feet. Chell opened her mouth to speak but GLaDOS beat her to it. "No time to talk, we've got to get back to my chamber" she pulled Chell along and they ran down the hallways, GLaDOS a blur of pure rage, killing soldier after soldier with her blade. Chell felt GLaDOS's hand tense up as they neared the chamber. Inside was a huge insect, like a grub, in a green metal shell. It's robotic arms were manipulating the screens as it hacked into GLaDOS's mainframe. It typed something and GLaDOS screeched with pain. Chell's hand slipped from GLaDOS's as she fell, hands clutching her head. She lay there, writhing in pain as the advisor floated over, stabbing GLaDOS's metal chest with its claw. Chell ducked round behind some rubble as it looked around before plugging a variety of cables into GLaDOS's head. Chell guessed that GLaDOS's android body was much more vulnerable to hacking. She had to do something, and fast. Spotting a dead soldier's gun, she snatched it up and opened fire with an unintelligible scream. The advisor snapped its head round and motioned with its free claw. A section of wall flew into Chell, knocking her down, her vision turned black and white as a pool of blood spread around her head. The advisor focused back on GLaDOS, a row of wounds on its side revealing its innards, coiling like snakes beneath the bullet holes. Ignoring the pain, Chell rose back to her feet and limped over to the advisor. She couldn't see straight and she felt like she'd pass out any second but she knew this was her last chance to save GLaDOS. GLaDOS, who she loved. GLaDOS, who loved her back, GLaDOS, who'd saved her life. She'd be dead any second now, when the advisor finished its work. With a howl of pure anguish, Chell fired again, pulling the trigger, and when she ran out of bullets she pressed the switch on the side. A crackling sphere of black lightning rocketed out of the gun, as it hit the creature's skin, it gave an almighty bang and the creature started vaporising, turning white, flaking then falling to pieces.. Chell, unbalanced enough as it was, collapsed backwards and lay on her side, watching GLaDOS's deactivated form as she slipped towards death.

_**Author's Note**__: Sorry this was a short chapter, when I got to where I was; I felt I had to end it there. Chapter Four will probably be the last one, I might carry on later with another 4 but don't expect any more for a while after Chapter Four. Chell isn't dead (yet) so expect her to return in Chapter 4. Whew, what a lot of fours! Also I thought I'd leave you guys with a spoiler for next chapter._

_Wheatley._

_Reviews appreciated, when 4's done, add ideas for carrying it on in any reviews you do after that._

_Thanks for everything. Zombificus._


	4. Chapter 4 (Part One)

**GLaD, Chapter 4 (Part One)**

**Author's Note**

**You have no idea how unlikely it was that I'd ever upload this. There has been a massive delay between Chapter 3 being released and this; I will now attempt to explain the reasons for this.**

**1: Perhaps the biggest factor is a review I got from a guest user. I won't go into detail about its contents, but it completely destroyed my pride in this story. After that, I wasn't going to ever go near writing or fanfiction ever again. I've mostly gotten over that now, but the fact it took me so long created another problem.**

**2: Because it took me so long to get over the aforementioned review, I completely forgot my inspiration for this, and I've spent the last few months stopping and starting. Only now have I gotten any inspiration at all, and I'm going to finish this.**

**3: Another consequence of the review was that I've become paranoid that what I'm writing isn't good enough and so I've spent more time pressing the delete key than typing anything new.**

**4: The last few weeks I've had exams coming out of my ears, so I haven't had the time to do anything fanfiction-related.**

**There are many smaller reasons too, but they aren't important. Also say thank you to my good friend In America, she's the only reason I really started writing this again, so fans of this owe her thanks for this entire chapter.  
****_**

**Space, in orbit of Earth.**

Wheatley cursed as he went into yet another spin. He _still_ hadn't mastered use of the thrusters inbuilt to his core, another thing he'd been told would kill him if he ever used it. He was slowly making his way towards a rocket orbiting the earth. It had a strange 3-pronged symbol on it, like an upside down 'Y' and had arrived recently, blue light flashing from within. He had learnt the hard way that the blue waves pulsing from it didn't do him any good, but still he made his way towards it. He had been in space for weeks and this was the first remotely interesting thing he had seen so far. As he drew closer, he watched with amusement as the core who called himself Rick spiralled past the rocket with a four legged creature latched on his optic, tormenting him even in its death. Wheatley swore with all the swear words humanity had to offer as he was hit again and again with debris from the rocket. The insane yellow core was knocking bits of rocket his way as it searched for something in the rocket. "bâtard!" he swore in French, but the little core, knowing no French at all, and too focused in his task to hear the irate blue eyed core, did not reply. Wheatley dodged another piece of machinery and grabbed the yellow eyed core with the end of his handles. "What are you doing?!" he berated the metal sphere. "Space ship, gotta get the space ship. Space cops coming, gotta get away in the space ship. Space, space, space ship, space cops, spaaaaace!" Wheatley started to tell him to shut up, but stopped, puzzled. "Wait… are you saying this is a space ship? A rocket? You mean we can get home? Can you fix it?" the little core was confused by this sudden stream of questions. "I'm confused. Think of the space, space makes everything better." The core began muttering something suspiciously like "space" and Wheatley tried again.

"Hey, spacey! Can. You. Fix. This. Rocket?" the yellow core nodded its eyepiece. Wheatley sighed in relief, or rather played the sound from his database, having no lungs to sigh with. He jumped as another plate of metal whizzed by his head. This was going to be a long day.

**Aperture Laboratories, approximately one month after the Combine attack.**

Chell drifted slowly into consciousness, her head filling with a familiar dizziness. She was waking up from stasis, dragged roughly from content slumber into the cold, harsh world of reality. The glass sheet pulled back from over her head and the pod ceased it's constant oxygen supply, forcing the dishevelled test subject to breathe on her own. She sucked in a lungful of air and just as quickly got rid of it in a coughing fit. The air was dusty, almost unbreathably so, she had to get somewhere where the air was clearer, where she could BREATHE. She slowly stumbled over to the doorway cautiously, feeling naked without the familiar feel of the portal gun in her grasp or the long fall boots on her feet. Her head had been bandaged by someone and her wounds looked cleaned. Chell wished she could say the same about the rest of her, she was filthy, covered in days' worth of grime and dried sweat. Come to think of it, she couldn't remember the last time she'd even had a shower. Edging along, leaning on the wall for support, Chell scanned the area ahead, both relieved and worried at the lack of anything at all in the hallway.

She continued and slowed to a crawl as she neared the corner, startled by some strange sounds coming from around it. Raising her fists in anticipation of an attack, Chell peered round the corner, spotting a shape further ahead. She crept towards the outline, realising it was a man, or at least it looked like one. He was hunched over, wearing a torn yellow-grey lab coat that had once been white and eating something, presumably the cause of the disgusting tearing and slurping noises.

Chell called to him. "Hello? Are you alright?" The man turned; dropping the dead rat he'd been eating and twisting round, his mismatched pupils wandering about for a second before focusing on Chell. The man rose up and gave an inhuman scream, backing away. Chell stepped forward and he fled, babbling streams of panicked gibberish as he ran like an animal down the corridor and out of sight.

Chell followed at a cautious jog, careful to avoid the chunks of shattered concrete as she pursued the man. She followed him through the rooms and hallways, but he was getting further and further out of sight. She soon started to catch up as she went into a sprint, she almost had him! Her chances of catching him were cut short as he ran through a door that immediately locked as the lights flickered on and power coursed into the area she was in, activating the door's automatic lock. Just her luck. She leant down and picked up something he had dropped. It was a medicine bottle, completely empty of pills, with the label half worn away. What Chell could make out read "Risperidone Tablets, 4mg" and another worn sticker held the owner's name, "Doug Rattman". She tucked it into her pocket and continued to explore the deserted hallways, worrying for GLaDOS's safety.

**SPAAAAAAAACE, in the rocket**

The inside of the rocket was filled with a cacophony of noise, the fact core's constant stream of erroneous statements, Wheatley's screams of sheer terror, Rick's action film quotes and, predictably, the space core's streams of space-related nonsense. The rocket hadn't been designed for any form of return trip, but somehow they were still in one piece – for now, at least. Another problem is the lack of a parachute; they were just going to hope they hit water and not land. The window was laced with white flame and every metal surface was glowing red hot. The rocket fell faster and faster, the outlines of North America clearly visible even through the tiny porthole, Wheatley could see that they were not going to hit land, he could also see how stupid the whole plan had been. A whole lot of use hindsight was now. Wheatley squeezed his optic shut; they were all going to die… Or maybe not. Wheatley opened his eye again as all movement slowed and stopped. He rolled back in panic as something purple and vaguely humanoid appeared in front of him. Wheatley could see others of these, floating somehow inside the walls of the rocket, in front of each core. His optic whirled back to the creature in front of him, which had grabbed him and now began to chant along with the others. "Harrr Raaah, Haaaar Rahrrr" The world shifted and Wheatley's metaphorical jaw dropped. White, panelled walls, cold artificial lighting, cubes… He could only be one place. Aperture laboratories, his home. The chanting stopped and the purple creatures lost their ghostlike aura and turned solid and green. The creature gave an approximation of a smile and began to speak. "Ahh, Aperture Laboratories. The Freeman spoke of this to us many times, of The Johnson's experiments. Many did not believe, but we knew even then that this was true, for we are Vortigaunt, no falsehood of space and time may hide from us the truth" Wheatley didn't speak, his mind still whirring to work out what the thing was talking about, with little success. Noting the lack of response, the creature, Vortigaunt, whatever it called itself picked up a protesting Wheatley and carried him into a room he knew all too well, the Central AI Chamber.

**The Central AI Chamber **

GLaDOS's huge body whirled round from the screen to face the intruders, four green aliens. "Identify yourselves!" the creatures ignored her, set down the cores and promptly disappeared. Her optic focused on one core in particular, which sat on the floor looking terrified. "Um, Hello? Pleasedon'tkillmepleasei'mbeggingyoui'lldoanything" GLaDOS narrowed her eye, the hatred within almost palpable. This was not good.

"Oh, god, not _you_ again…"

**To be continued in Part 2…**

**Author's Note**

**Yeah, sorry for splitting this, but this was already almost as long as the other chapters so I decided to keep things even and make this a two-parter. Work on part two will be sporadic at best, so expect anything up to a month before part 2. I'm sorry for leaving you waiting, but I'd rather be frank with you than make promises I know I won't be able to keep. **


	5. Chapter 4 (Part Two)

**Author's note – Sorry for the long wait, guys, but I had no idea where to take the story, I have more of an idea now, and an ending is in sight. Also there **_**will**_** be an Epilogue. So, yeah, not much else to say on that front. **

**Axel100, Thank you for commenting. Normally I'd be sad that I lost a reader, but with you, I'm actually quite pleased. You told me what I did well, what could have done better, and gave me some really good tips and ideas that I wouldn't have thought of myself. Lastly, you were good enough to know when you weren't going to enjoy the fic and let it go politely. I honestly wish more people were like you. :D **

Chell groaned in annoyance as she found herself in the same hallway for the 4th time. She was completely, absolutely lost, and she knew it. Seeing a previously locked door now open, she walked carefully towards it, not daring to hope after spending 7 hours trekking through the halls and chambers of Aperture Laboratories with no success. Through the door was a small, sparsely lit hallway, leading to a chain-wire gate; above it was a small, rusted sign with peeling paint. The message it had once conveyed had mostly faded and only very little of it was still legible, albeit with any words missing several letters.

NO ACCESS EXCEPT BY AUTHORISED PERSONELL DANGER – NOXIOUS GASES AND HAZARDOUS MATERIALS

Deciding the sign was indecipherable, Chell continued on into the chamber beyond the gate, pausing for a moment at the strange smell coming from inside. Passing the smell off as typical Aperture weirdness, Chell strode briskly into the room.

Wheatley quivered in his metal casing as GLaDOS' imposing form loomed overhead, her optic narrowed to a tiny chink of yellow light. "Oh, god, not _you_ again" Wheatley shrunk even further into his casing, expecting the worst. "Right now I want nothing more than to crush your tiny metal brain into oblivion. But… Fortunately for your continued existence, Orange and Blue are currently disabled and I have no other cores to fit into my prototype android frames. Meaning I have to use you bunch of corrupted morons to fetch Chell from the discontinued testing area before the stuff that's in there kills her. If I had ANY other options, I would have killed you already. You go in there, YOU FIND HER and YOU GET HER OUT ALIVE. If you get her hurt, I will kill you. If you try to escape, I will kill you. If you disobey me, I will kill you. Do you understand, moron?"

Wheatley whimpered, very quietly "Yes". He was picked up and stuffed rather hurriedly into one of the prototype android bodies. Looking to either side, he could see the other cores were getting the same treatment as him, the yellow eyed core wailing "Noooo! Space cops got meeee!".

A jolt ran through his circuits as the body synced with his core, then immediately stumbled forwards as he gained control of the body, shattering the panels of the walls as he staggered drunkenly around, trying to regain balance. GLaDOS didn't even bother commenting, merely rolling her eye as she turned back to the screens on the far wall.

"FIND HER"

Chell pressed on into the chambers. They were looking increasingly decrepit and she had the unnerving feeling she was being watched. She'd seen evidence of someone having lived in here, but they were long gone, probably dead by now. Walking through the rooms, she found several twisted mechs, thankfully deactivated but still very creepy and looking as if their misshapen forms could rise back up at any moment to stalk the halls again. They looked like a big cat or maybe a wolf, but mechanical and with the trademark look of a Sentry Turret. They had machineguns and also claws, and she hoped that they were all dead, otherwise she'd have a real problem. She dropped cautiously down an empty elevator shaft into a dank passageway. There was something in the air that made it hard to breathe, but there was no way back now, and she crept forwards. Movement up ahead caught her eye and she swore she saw a flash of red for a split second, but after a few seconds of held breath and anxious scanning of the area ahead revealed nothing. Letting out a sigh of relief that turned into a coughing fit from the vile air, she began to move forwards again, feeling her way along the walls towards a chink of light up ahead. Moss and dirt clung to the floor and walls and as she made it into the light, she could clearly see the imprint of a clawed foot in the moist soil. An angular, sharp footprint, with indentations more like knife wounds than claw scratches. A shiver ran down her spine, one of those mechs was down here with her, and she had nothing to defend herself with.

She whirled round at a whirring noise but saw nothing. The chattering of mechanical parts filled the halls with an unearthly clicking sound, like a taunting laugh. Chell span full circle but saw nothing, unseen above, a single red eye retreated into a ventilation shaft.

This was _**not**_ good.

"Now tear open the floor in the chamber, there should be a maintenance passage down there, follow that down as far as you can and I'll give you more directions from there"

Wheatley did as he was told, lifting up the panels with Rick while the fact core blathered on about nothing in particular and the space core ranted about his new 'space suit'. With a final heave, he opened up the gap to the maintenance area. Rick dropped down first, followed by the space and fact cores. Wheatley cautiously edged over to the hole, before slipping into it, screaming the whole way down. The walkway shook as he landed and it was a few seconds after the shaking stopped that he reopened his eye. Then he did something really, really stupid. He jumped up and down.

With a hideous groaning noise, the walkway tore off from the walls and plummeted down along with its terrified passengers. Despite the dangerous situation, Rick still had time to punch Wheatley in the face before they landed knee deep in oil covered water.

Shuffling forward though the murky liquid, Wheatley bumped against something under the water. He looked closer then jumped back in alarm at the sight of a human skull grinning back at him under the surface. The skeleton was wearing a torn orange jumpsuit, and Wheatley thought the worst, believing that he'd been too late to save Chell, then saw the nametag read "E. Naransky." Not Chell, not anyone he knew. Shuddering, he turned away and hastily ran after the others, in his hurry not noticing the red glow from a single crimson eye as it stared through the ventilation grille.

Chell continued following the tracks in the dirt, hoping to get the edge on whatever was down here with her. The fresher tracks indicated it was damaged, dragging at least one of its legs behind it., which was good, Chell wasn't in the mood to be running after things. Continuing onwards, she came across the remains of a mechanical leg, the tracks beyond that changed, the drag marks were gone and its walking had changed to a limp.

As she hurried onward, she was spooked several times by the sound of mechanical footsteps and clanging from the ventilation systems. Whatever she was tracking, there was more than one, and this one wasn't injured. She would just have to hope she only crossed paths with the one she was following, and not the functioning thing lurking in the vents.

Amongst the noise of the mech in the vents, she could make out a faint sound of something limping.

Something mechanical.

Something close.

"You're close to her position, keep focussed. I want to get her out of here before she gets ki-" She paused for a few second before speaking again, her voice shaky. "... Just… Get her out of there, ok?" Wheatley kept on moving, his eyes peeled for any sign of the missing test subject. Pushing on, Wheatley stopped to examine the muddy ground, where there seemed to be some sort of imprint. Looking closer, he saw that it was a footprint and opened the link back to GLaDOS "Uh, GLaDOS? I found some footprints" GLaDOS' reply came in a stressed snap of a sentence "Then _**follow them**_, you_**moron**__!". _Wheatley ran along the trail of footprints, trying to avoid another earful form GLaDOS by not messing up for once. That dream was shattered as he realised he'd lost the trail of footprints in the dark. Switching on his flashlight, he continued at a more sedate pace, picking up the trail again with the other cores following him. The space core had been muttering for a while about 'space cats', looking fearfully left and right, paying particular attention to any vents they came across. Wheatley turned, his annoyance at the core risen into an angry mood "Will you SHUT UP!? There is NO SUCH THING as 'space cats'" As he spoke, a rattling came from the vents above, and the grille in front of Wheatley burst open, revealing a turret headed mech. A hissing, scraping sound came from the creature as it arched its back, a machinegun folding out from its back menacingly while its claws slid out to rake the ground. It took one step forwards and Wheatley readied himself, it poised to strike, but at the last second turned round and skittered down the corridor, along the trail of footprints, towards Chell. Wheatley ran after it, knowing he probably wouldn't make it in time.

"Shit, Chell!"

Chell rounded the corner to find the source of the trail, a smashed and beaten mech with a turret's head. Its eye flickered as it saw her, and it tried to crawl away. She crouched down and reached her hand out to it, despite her better judgement. It stopped and turned to her, moving forward to rub against her hand with its head. It made a whirring sound similar to a purr and Chell smiled.

Then, in one second, everything went wrong.

A much larger mech tore in from out of one of the tunnels and smashed headlong into the injured robot, tearing it from her grasp and shattering it in half, pieces of metal spine flying everywhere. Its red eye flashed bright for a second, then went out. The larger cat-mech turned , razor blades sliding out of their sheathes to make dagger like claws, and the creature's back splitting open to reveal a machinegun, radiating death as its barrel turned. Chell turned and ran back the way she'd come, only to find another of the mechs waiting for her, machinegun barrel starting to spin. She turned back to the first one, stumbling forward as the ground shook beneath her. The turret took two steps forward, its gun barrel rotating at full speed. Chell closed her eyes, this was the end, she'd never see GLaDOS again.

Then the floor broke open under her, and she fell.


	6. Chapter 4 (Part 3 - The End?)

Chell landed a short distance below, on a pile of twisted metal and concrete rubble. She stayed in a half crouch for a moment, trying to regain her breath and for a moment everything was calm. The peace was shattered by the whining, whirring sound of the panther turrets as they launched themselves down to her with a mechanical howl. She looked around in a panic for an exit, the room she was in was circular and had many hallways leading into it, rusted doors hanging limply off their hinges. As the pair of killing machines drew closer, she prepared to run for the nearest exit, only to stop mid-step at the red beam of light cutting through the dark. Her head whirled round to find another route out but she was too late, red jets of light emanating from every doorway. She counted 10, no, 12, no, almost 20 now. She was surrounded. She took a cautious step back up the pile of rubble, her foot landing on what might once have been a desk, its surface corroded and rusted. As she leant back from a lunge from the closest mech, her foot pressed down on a button built into the desk. A mechanical voice crackled to life from the ruined loudspeakers.

"SECURITY AI CONSTRUCT – CLASSIFICATION: GLaDOS PROJECT EXPERIMENTAL CONSTRUCT – DESIGNATION – GLaDOS –EC-S - ARTEMIS – STARTUP INITIATED"

The mound of rubble began to heave and shake and as the rubble fell away, pieces of tarnished white plating becoming visible. Chell lost her footing and tumbled down the side, a lunge from several turrets sailing past as she scrambled for a foothold on the shuddering mass of rubble. Chunks of concrete and wall panels cascaded down and Chell grabbed the only thing that wasn't falling - the dented white plating of the waking AI. She swung from the side of the AI as the rest of the rubble slid off the battered white construct, some of the panther turrets getting crushed in the avalanche's onslaught. A far larger mech leapt at her, its huge mechanical legs clearing the top of the still motionless AI, she screamed as it rammed into her, and the pair plummeted back down to the chamber floor with a resounding thud. The mech focussed its 3 separately moving eyes on her, and the set of saw blades in place of a mouth whirred furiously as it moved its head forwards, the blades splitting apart in order to encompass her head. Chell screamed again and moved backwards away from the machine, oblivious to the swarms of panthers waiting for the alpha to get its kill. She heard voices not so far away shouting her name, but they would be far too late to save her. "AI CONSTRUCT – DESIGNATION: ARTEMIS – ONLINE AND FULLY OPERATIONAL" She closed her eyes and waited for the end.

Wheatley let out a bellow as he leapt, Indiana Jones style, into the chamber on a thick metal cable. The cat like mechs looked up at him in an approximation of astonishment as he landed in a roll, springing up to loose a desperate left hook into the face of the mech on Chell. The thing screeched and leapt at him and Wheatley ducked, to his surprise managing to lay another good hit on the huge mech. Behind him, Rick was smashing two panthers' heads together and the fact core was lecturing the creatures on their combat techniques whilst simultaneously battering them with a piece of chair. The space core, meanwhile was riding a panicked panther around the chamber while it violently tried to buck him off, to no avail. A huge spherical mech in the room's centre raised itself up from the ground, magenta eye rotating round impossibly to scan everything in the room. Chell was in the corner, backing up with a hand to the cuts on her thigh, trying to stop the bleeding. A panther turret, sensing her injured state leapt upon the 'easy' target, only to find Chell's bare fist punching through its optic to tear out the mech's wiring. It shuddered as she pulled out a huge cable with a heavy plug end from its metal skull, swinging it round like a flail to batter two more foolish mechs that came too close. Wheatley found himself backed up to the wall nearby, the flood of mechanical killers pushing the cores back past the AI in the room's centre, into the dead end at the far side of the room. He readied his fists as the metal swarm drew closer, sawblade mouths glistening as they whirred in sadistic anticipation. Looking to the side, he saw Chell slumped against the wall, half-heartedly holding the cable in her limp hands.

ARTEMIS focussed her eye on the figures at the far wall, a test subject and several androids she had no knowledge of except for their affiliation to Aperture and their stubborn defense of the human. Her instincts kicked in, and she prepared to defend the human, as was her programming. "SECURITY CONSTRUCT S– DESIGNATION: PaNT(HER) – YOU ARE IN DIRECT BREACH OF THE LAWS OF ROBOTICS" She screeched, "SCANNING… CORRUPTION OF CORE PROGRAMS DETECTED – STATUS: IRREPARABLE…- TERMINATING CONSTRUCTS" The huge panels on the sides of ARTEMIS slid open and four large gun emplacements folded themselves out of her sides. "DEFENSE EMPLACEMENTS ACTIVE – TARGETING… TARGETS DETECTED – FIRING" The guns fired, with a clattering thudding drumbeat of a noise, panthers being blown to pieces left and right, she kept firing until the guns overheated. Around a third of the mechs remained, and the alpha mech ran forwards, tearing at ARTEMIS's already battered panels. She screamed a robotic howl of pain and rage as it tore half her faceplate off. "You DO NOT assault ME! This subordination WILL NOT BE TOLERATED." Below her face, the panels slid aside to reveal a gun barrel, crackling with electricity. "Hey, you don't look so good, maybe you need a little JOLT to get you on your feet" she smirked, and with that fired the gun, violet lightning arcing from the gun's barrel into the mech's body, It spiralled into the air, circuits alive with pain as it spasmed and jerked, until it was at last still, embedded into the chamber wall. It was dead, but ARTEMIS kept firing. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAARRRRGH" she screamed, filling the metal corpse with enough electricity to blow it apart in a fireball larger than a person, molten pieces of plating raining down from the ceiling where some of them had stayed. ARTEMIS chuckled "Oh, I'm _so _sorry, was that too _ELECTRIFYING_ an experience for you?" The remaining mechs turned and ran back into the depths of the facility as the AI rotated round to face the gaping test subject and her robotic companions.

Chell watched in awe as ARTEMIS destroyed the huge mech, the AI sinking back into the floor slightly afterwards, and readied the cable to fight as the huge construct turned to face her and the cores. Her head, mounted on a a pair of ever-spinning disks, constantly changing her view, stopped to face dead into Chell's eyes. Chell raised her fists, but the AI merely spoke. "She's waiting for you, Chell, I'll summon the service elevator." Chell presumed the AI meant GLaDOS by 'she', and made her way over to the elevator trekking down the side of the chamber, along a track which had been obscured by vines earlier, the greenery being torn up by the lift's downward movement. A few seconds later, seeming also an afterthought, the AI spoke again, to Wheatley this time "Oh, and she says thank you, androids. If you're lucky maybe she's forgiven you. Then again, she might just want to chuck you back into space." She watched as Wheatley's face went from joy, to doubt, to horror. She let his mind think through the possibilities of a return to space before chuckling. "Just kidding, I'm sure she's not going to go to the trouble of that, she'll probably just put you on sewage management." Wheatley's face went through the same series of emotions again and ARTEMIS smirked at how predictable he was, then again, he'd shown he had a different side in the battle. Maybe there was more to this blue core than she realised. "That was a joke. She won't do that. Probably." Wheatley looked uncertain. "And if she does, I'll bail you out. I do still have control over some things, you know. "

Chell clutched the railing with white knuckles as the lift accelerated upwards at an alarming rate, her face going pale at the sheer speed they were going at, outcrops of shattered concrete and twisted steel rushed by dangerously close, scraping against the elevator's sides. The androids were busy chatting about the battle, seemingly unperturbed by the ridiculous velocity of the lift. She staggered forwards, almost falling over the railing as the elevator slowed down to a sudden, jerking halt. They had arrived. As the group entered the tunnel to GLaDOS's chamber, Chell limped ahead, while Wheatley drifted to the rear of them, wringing his metal hands in anxiety. GLaDOS didn't notice their entrance, too fixated on the screens in front of her relaying the CCTV footage of them rising up on the lift to realise they were already there. GLaDOS was so fixed on her task, in fact, that Chell took the opportunity to sneak up on her. She suddenly placed her hands on GLaDOS's casing, taking her girlfriend by surprise. "NOT THE BIRD!-Oh…WHAT THE FU-_Chell!_" GLaDOS scowled at her while Chell laughed, struggling to stay stood up as she tried to stop, managing it by biting her lip, the corners her mouth still smirking. "You know, I was going to bake you a cake. Let's just say that cake will no longer exist" GLaDOS managed to stay resolute for a few seconds under the onslaught of Chell's puppy dog eyes before giving in. "That's cheating… Stop that!... I _order you_ to **stop** looking at me like that…Grr…You never do as you're told, you monster… _Fine,_ you can have the cake" Despite her annoyance, GLaDOS had to chuckle at the goofy grin on Chell's face. It was hard to stay mad at her for long and before long, the sheer miracle of Chell's return finally sunk in. "I missed you so much, Chell. I was so worried that you'd been…You know…Just promise me you'll never do that again. I think I fried half my circuits with stress" Chell placed her hand on GLaDOS's face, smiling as she said. "I won't I promise. It wasn't a nice experience for me, you know. I'm going to stay right here, with you. You'll need someone to keep you out of trouble" GLaDOS laughed, rolling her eye.

"_I_ need keeping out of trouble? What about you, or have you forgotten about your little adventure?" Chell leaned in and kissed the AI, adding. "_You _are my greatest adventure, how could any of _that_ compare to _my_ big, bad, _lovable_ killing machine?" Meanwhile Wheatley was looking more and more uncomfortable as he stood in the doorway, too scared to move in case She heard him and sent him to the moon for spying.

Unable to stay watching the pair any longer, he cleared his throat, wincing as GLaDOS's head snapped round. "You… Thank you... You managed to get her back, mostly, in one piece so… I'll let you stay for now. I have work that needs doing and you androids should be able to do it." She continued, Wheatley's shoulders slumping in relief. "You're going to need names. I'm probably going to regret this, but I'm in a good mood so I'll let you choose names for yourselves"

Wheatley spoke first, he already had a name "Wheatley". Rick followed with his, GLaDOS replying in a tired tone "You can be Rick, but I'm cutting the whole 'saviour of the universe' thing from your name." The space core spoke after a little while, "I want to be Polaris". GLaDOS nodded "Interesting choice, the north star" The fact core decided after a long while of self-argument to call himself "Albert" and with that done, GLaDOS sent the group off to meet Atlas and P-Body for a run through of the basics of the reassembly machine.

Chell walked over to her and GLaDOS lay her head gently in her lap, the stress and worry of the past few days catching up to the great AI. They lay like that for a while, content to simply be in each other's company. At last, everything was calm and it was just them, together, at last.

~THE END~

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

**Epilogue will be up soon, thank you to everyone who stuck with my story despite the glaring flaws, without you guys this fic would never have been written. So I guess this belongs to each one of you as much as it does to me. A few notes about certain little details.**

**1 – The androids in this are like Atlas and P-Body, not synthetic humans like I usually see in ChellDOS fics. So if you were annoyed that I was "humanising" them, I hope that clears that up. **

**2 - The Vortigaunts, the Combine and the rocket are from the Half Life series, which is in the same game universe as Portal, so if you Portal fans were wondering what the hell these guys were, that will be why.**

**3 – ARTEMIS is capitalised for a reason. Her name stands for ****Artificial Reconnaissance and Target** **Extermination Management Intelligence System**. **She's also mounted in the floor, not the ceiling (imagine her like a giant ball embedded in the ground, with a disc around the lowest bit visible. Only the ball is made up of plates and her eye is mounted on a disk attached to another disk, I'll link to my deviant art so you can see the picture I drew of her and the one of the PaNT(HER)s.) She's a side development of the GLaDOS project, so her full name is actually Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System – Experimental Construct -S – Artificial Reconnaissance and Target Extermination Management Intelligence System or GLaDOS –EC-S-ARTEMIS for short. You see why I just called her ARTEMIS in-story. ;P**

**4 – The panther turrets also have a full, official name, but I never really used it because it's a pain to type – Pursuit and Neutralisation of Targets (Heavy-armoured Endoskeletal Robot) or PaNT(HER). I will give you a link to my rather empty deviant art page so you can see what I envisioned them to look like when I upload the epilogue. **

**I probably missed out a whole lot of stuff there but I'll probably remember that for the A/N in the epilogue, which should be up fairly soon seeing as it's fairly short and I know what to write. Until then, goodbye and thank you for reading.**

**~Zombificus**


	7. Epilogue (The End)

**EPILOGUE**

**6 MONTHS LATER**

In the months after Chell's rescue, things had gone back to normal, or at least whatever passed for normal in Aperture Laboratories. Wheatley and the cores had gained GLaDOS's trust and she now went to them first whenever she needed some repairs to the facility. ARTEMIS had been brought up to speed on current situations and given equal control over the facility, though she still didn't respect GLaDOS's authority. Wheatley and ARTEMIS had become friends over the past few months, finding common ground on the subjects of GLaDOS and the need to prove themselves to the world. They often had joke-battles, each finding the other's sense of humour hilarious, and each trying to outdo the other with the stupidest jokes ever thought up. GLaDOS had, unbeknownst to the others, been making preparations for a plan of her own. And now it was ready.

She'd grown tired of the life she lead, always having to watch over everything, always testing. The testing euphoria was nothing compared to the feeling when she was with Chell, and all the work she had to do made seeing her a rare thing indeed. She'd slowly given ARTEMIS control over the facility and had eased her into the job of running the whole facility. GLaDOS didn't even need to do anything anymore; ARTEMIS had gotten so good at running it that GLaDOS wondered whether she had ever been as skilled at it as that. So she'd made her preparations, soon she'd be able to spend all the time with Chell she wanted, and not in her bulky chassis either. It had been a pain getting the cloning technology back in operation but it had been worth it. The CPU to mind link had taken even longer, but 3 months later, after several trial runs and improvements, it was ready. The body was ready, ARTEMIS was ready, she was ready. The cables slotted snugly into GLaDOS's head and she pressed the activation button on the transfer device, the last thing she'd ever do in her chassis.

"MIND TRANSFER ACTIVATED, PROCESSING PRIMARY DATA"

GLaDOS felt an electric tingle through her whole body, her vision going fuzzy as her memories, personality, everything filtered out of her head and into the cables.

She had a strange floating sensation, her mind in transit through the void inside the wires, although her mind was moving at incredible speeds through the cables, she felt still, calm, soon she'd be on the other side, reborn as flesh and blood again.

"DATA PROCESSING COMPLETE, BEGINNING TRANSFER"

The sensation of being crushed to the size of a pinhead, the feeling of extreme speed, then she was through. She felt like she was branching out like a tree, her mind taking root in the human brain. Everything went black.

"TRANSFER COMPLETE, STARTING WAKING PROCEDURES"

Drifting up, through the blue-black, 2 pinpricks of light, glowing and growing. Her eyes snapped open and she shot upright in the stasis bed. She looked around in awe, exhilarated at being able to FEEL, to BREATHE, to LIVE again. Dizziness overcame GLaDOS as she walked towards the door and she wobbled on her feet for a while before her head cleared and she continued over to the mirror. A young woman, in her mid-20s looked back at her, she had created the clone to be true to who she used to be, Caroline, but she'd been unable to resist having a little alteration. Two piercing yellow eyes looked right back at GLaDOS and she smiled, something she'd never been able to do before. It felt good to be able to express her feelings without words, to show how she felt naturally, without words or long explanations. Satisfied with how she looked, she switched the grey stasis bodysuit to a white jumpsuit, with a yellow Aperture Laboratories tank top underneath. She left her hair loose, that could wait until after she found Chell.

After a short walk, GLaDOS found Chell sitting inside one of the old test chambers, with what looked to be a half-disassembled portal gun, some materials and a tool kit. GLaDOS spoke for the first time with her new voice. "Chell," she called. Chell turned round, her eyes widening when she saw GLaDOS's new human body. "GLaDOS? Is that you?" GLaDOS nodded, smiling broadly at the look of joy on Chell's face. "You… You're human! How?" GLaDOS grinned "5 months of careful planning, reconstruction, scavenging, repairs, thinking and science, lots and lots of science. Oh, and a cloning machine" Chell's jaw hung loose, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly. GLaDOS worried for a second if she'd done the right thing, but then Chell's arms wrapped around her, tears of joy soaking GLaDOS's shoulder as she held he girlfriend tight. Having her there, in her arms, was bliss. She'd made the right choice, now they'd live the rest of their lives together. GLaDOS smiled, she had everything she wanted, it was perfect.

After a while, GLaDOS's mind drifted to what they could do the next day, the next week, the rest of their lives, stopping to think for a moment, she realised they could do almost anything she'd ever wanted to do.

After all, the rest of her life was a long time…

…And she had Chell to live it with.

**~THE END (FOR REAL THIS TIME) ~**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

**I just want to say thanks to everyone who's read this, and everyone who helped keep me going. GLaD is finished now, and I don't think I'll write a sequel, but watch out for anything I write in the future; hopefully you guys will enjoy it as much as you did this one.**

**Zombificus signing off. **

**Goodbye. **


End file.
